STOCKS - AUSTRALIAN STOCKS UP AT NOON - JUNE 3, 2002.

SYDNEY, June 3 Asia Pulse - Strength in market heavyweights News Corp, BHP Billiton and Telstra helped keep the Australian stock market in positive territory at noon.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was 11.7 points firmer at 3385.3 and the all ordinaries gained 12.0 points to 3337.1 by 1217 AEST.

On the Sydney futures exchange, the June share price index contract was up 15 points at 3374 - an 11.3 point discount to the underlying index - on a volume of 5,298 contracts.

Salomon Smith Barney head of sales Simon Poidevin said trading was "extremely quiet", although positive economic data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this morning was injecting some optimism into the market.

"The economic stuff this morning (was) quite interesting, company profits in particular very strong," Mr Poidevin said.

Mr Poidevin noted a strong performance in the banks, which he said had had been a standout in the past few trading sessions.

"CBA (Commonwealth Bank of Australia) has picked up very strongly, Westpac continues its good run from last week, St George just won't lie down," Mr Poidevin said.